Ranger's Apprentice: Continued
by FanFictionForTheWin123
Summary: Takes place after Royal Ranger. After 5 years of her apprenticeship, Maddie has finally graduated. Let's see how she deals with having to take care of her own fief, especially one that looks peaceful at first glance. Rated T for future gore and violence. Notice: Sorry guys I just broke my arm so the uploads will be quite slow from here on out until my arm fully heals. :(
1. Chapter 1: Graduation

Chapter 1

It was very late at night in the town of Wensley, well after the most hardworking or sleep-deprived of people go to bed. Wensley was a town of around three dozen buildings settled next to the river Tarbus, and no more than a short walk from castle Redmont, which makes it a very good place to settle, both for the resources and trading opportunity the river provided, as well as the protection castle Redmont offered with its garrison of knights and men at arms. Naturally, Wensley was a very prosperous town. Unfortunately, however, its prosperity also resulted in it being a common target for crime.

Two figures crouched slowly down the high road to Wensley, both of them were males of medium heights, both of them wore dull brown cloaks with no cowls and were obviously inexperienced at moving stealthily. They made their way past the butcher's shop and the tavern, stopping at the front door of the inn. The inn was the only two-story building in the town, except for the recently expanded and overhauled Heaped Platter- Jenny Dalby's restaurant- so it was easy to spot. Inns, especially successful ones, can earn a small fortune every week, and that makes them common targets for robbery.

"You've got the lock picks?" asked one of the men to the other.

"Of course I do, Jordan! Why would I make me way here with yer if I know I haven't no lock picks on me self?" The other man replied with a thick country accent.

"Whatever, just remember to start picking the lock once you hear my knocking and bail when you don't hear anymore talking."

"Sure." The man said and made his way as stealthily as possible around the inn to the backdoor. Jordan went to the front door and knocked three times loudly. After a few minutes, the sound of locks being unlocked could be heard. A man then opened the door, his hand tightly gripping a cudgel, raising the stick as if about to strike.

"Who in the blazes is still awake this night?" The innkeeper demanded, he was obviously irritated due to his rest being interrupted.

"Just a friendly traveller, no need to be brandishing a weapon. I request nothing but a place to rest of after hard weeks of travelling." Jordan raised his hands in the air in a peaceful manner.

"Traveller, you say? Well, bad luck for you, it's too late in the night, come back tomorrow morning and maybe I'll get you a room and some food." Joel, the innkeeper was in the act of closing the door when Jordan's hand stopped in the its motion.

"But surely you can provide me with some meager food, my supplies have all but ran out." Jordan's tone was insisting.

"No can do, there was a lot more people than expected that came this evening, all the food has gone." Joel shook his head and try to close the door again, but found he was unable to, the other man's hand was keeping the door open and he was using much more force than necessary, Joel was starting to get suspicious. He was about to threaten Jordan with the cudgel if he won't let his hand off the door when a scream of pain came from behind the inn. Joel and Jordan turned their heads to the source of the sound when out of nowhere, a cloaked and cowled figure seemingly stepped out of the shadows behind Jordan and a glint of steel flashed to Jordan's throat so quickly you'd swear the saxe just appeared out of thin air. Jordan's heart leaped to his throat as he noticed the saxe knife, mere centimeters from finishing his life, he could also barely a cowled figure behind him if he just slightly turn his head.

"Move another inch and I'll slit your throat like a goat," The cowled figure said threateningly and Jordan's blood froze. "Jordan Martin, you have been arrested for nineteen cases of robbery in twelve fiefs, including one attempted robbery if you count this. Your accomplice has also been dealt with." As the famous Will Treaty said it, another cloaked and cowled figure dragged the unconscious said accomplice to the front of the inn.

"Here's him, Will." The voice from the cowled figure was obviously feminine.

"Good job, Maddie." Will said, still holding the saxe close the Jordan's throat.

"Thank you, Rangers, you've saved my business," Joel said, gratitude evident in his voice. "If you ever need something, I'll…"

"It's nothing Joel, all part of the job." Maddie said. After they had delivered the two robbers to Baron Arald, who happily ordered his men to throw the criminals in his dungeon, the two Rangers walked back to their cabin, they hadn't bothered to bring their horses that night. "You know, it's amazing how little people tend to look up. I was hiding on the roof with my head peeking out and he didn't sense a thing." Maddie said, as they were walking back to the cabin.

Will smiled. "Oh, don't I know all about it."

* * *

Maddie and Will were having eggs and bacon in the following morning. Maddie had mastered the art of cooking in her years of apprenticeship, and had cook both of their breakfasts themselves. In fact, her cooking had arguably become better than Will's cooking and even Jenny had complimented it from times to times. Both of the Rangers were having coffee of course, as was compulsory with Rangers. They would be heading out for the annual Gathering soon, this particular Gathering was very special for Maddie since this was the year she would be receiving her silver oakleaf.

Maddie was slowly sipping her coffee, while in a trance of just staring into space. Seeing this, Will asked. "What's wrong Maddie, is something bothering you?"

That broke her out of her trance. "Well, I was just thinking, it's probably the last day of my apprenticeship, and when I earn my silver oakleaf, I will probably have to go back to castle Araluen when my mom reinstates me, you know how protective she is of me. I doubt I'll be given a fief to watch over."

Will noticed as he smiled warmly. "Don't worry, I'm sure I can solve something out, maybe get Gilan to assign you to a safe and small fief like Seacliff, which was my first fief. And having seen your skill with the sling and bow for five years, I can safely assure that you can handle Seacliff easily."

"Thanks, Will." Maddie smiled back at Will's comforting words.

Thirty minutes later, once the two Rangers have finished their breakfast and cleaned the dishes, they packed lightly for the Gathering and soon have saddled their horses. Maddie energetically mounted Bumper, jumping on to him in one leap. She barely limped now, and was as agile as ever. Before they set out, Maddie gave Bumper an apple while Will gave Tug up to three apples. Seeing it, Maddie asked. "Isn't that too much apples for a horse?"

Will just rolled his eyes. "Oh, first Halt, now you too."

"But still, you could make Tug fat, you know. He'll barely be able to walk without rolling over then."

Tug snorted with indignation. _I can eat as much apples as I like, thank you very much._

* * *

When Maddie and Will got to the Gathering ground, they found only Gilan and Blaze standing in the middle of the ground. Maddie noticed that all the tents have been pitched up, meaning that the other Rangers have been here. _Then where are they?_ She thought.

As they dismount and approach Gilan, Will and the Ranger Commandant shook hands and Gilan gave Maddie a short hug. Maddie was just about to ask Will why the other Rangers weren't here when pulled out a very official-looking leather folder.

"It's for your graduation as a Ranger." Will said softly to Maddie, suddenly she felt very nervous, maybe she should've tried to get herself on Gilan's good side beforehand. Maybe she should've worn the formal Ranger uniform, though she doubt she'll be able to keep it clean on the way from Redmont all the way to the Gathering ground.

"Ok, now let's get started," Gilan said, opening up the leather folder.

"Uh… yes sir… I mean Gilan." Maddie said, somehow sounding even more nervously than she felt. Both of the other Ranger's eyebrows shot up like an arrow fired vertically from their longbow.

"Sir?" Gilan asked. "You never cared to call me sir." Will realised that what Maddie felt right now was very similar to what he felt during his graduation day.

"And I think your cloak looks like it's of very good quality, it looks like what the Ranger Commandant obviously deserves." Maddie mentally slapped herself for making such a stupid comment.

"Thanks?" Gilan said, not sure how to reply. "Though this cloak is the same as yours, though maybe after you get reinstated, you can ask your mom to give me a raise, or at least a holiday." Gilan added jokingly.

"Okay, let's get started." Gilan said, flicking and scanning the pages of the official form. "You, Madelyn Altman, have trained to Ranger Will of Redmont fief these last five years and blah, blah, blah, gosh these official forms are awfully long are they?" Gilan coughed to clean his throat. "You've shown the necessary skills and proficiency of the weapon a Ranger uses, the longbow, the saxe, the throwing knife and yahdah, yahdah, yahdah. These forms really are long, huh, but then again, I do have to at least pretend I am reading them or your mom would strangle me." Gilan flips a few more pages. "Ah, here it is. You are, in all ways, ready to assume the position and authority of a fully operational Ranger in the kingdom of Araluen, correct?" asking the same question that Crowley asked Will during his graduation all those years ago.

"Uh, yes, sir, of course." Maddie replied.

"So now all you have to do is sign here at the bottom and you'll be an official Ranger from now on." Gilan turned the form over to Maddie and handed over a quill to her. Maddie took the form and signed her signature on it. "Okay, we're done now?"

"Wait, that's it?" Maddie said, a look of puzzlement evident on her face. Then she recovered and continued. "I mean, with all due respect, but I expected, well, I didn't know what I really expected but not this casual 'yep do that and you're a Ranger.'"

"Oh, well, I guess you need to have your silver oakleaf as well, it is the badge of a graduate Ranger after all. Now where is it….?" As Gilan seemingly tried to search himself for the silver oakleaf. "Damn, I think I left it in the pavilion, silly me, old age must be catching up, wait a minute while I go get it, okay?" As he made his way to a large tent sixty meters (200 feet) away.

As Gilan disappeared behind the tent flap of the pavilion, Maddie and Will waited when suddenly, nearly fifty Rangers seemingly walked out from the surrounding tree lines, all yelling "Congratulations!" From far away, Maddie could also spot her mother, the currently Queen of Araluen, Cassandra, also known to her close friends as Evanlyn walking with her father, Sir Horace Altman, the Oakleaf Knight, the Sunrise Warrior and champion knight of the realm.

Maddie ran to her parents and embraced both of them in a hug. "I'm so proud of you." Her mother said, repeated by her father.

Then Gilan stepped out from the crowd of Rangers. "You should've seen your face though. Your reaction was priceless. 'Wait, that's it?'" Gilan nearly doubled over laughing, much to a frowning Evanlyn. "And here is your silver oakleaf." Gilan presented a small ornate pillow, and upon it,a silver oakleaf, her silver oakleaf. Maddie gingerly lifted up the silver oakleaf and carefully pinned it on her chest. She was a full-fledged Ranger now and never had Maddie felt prouder than she was that day.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading my fanfiction (this is only my second so far) and any criticism would be appreciated so I can improve upon my writing.**


	2. Chapter 2: Gorlan

Chapter 2

A mounted figure in a mottled cloak, face concealed by its cowl, rode slowly on the high road that was sure to lead to the new Castle Gorlan. Ever since she arrived in the fief, her travel had been peaceful enough, no bandits or brigands had tried to stop, though it was doubtful that any criminal was suicidal enough to try robbing a Ranger. Then again, the Corps could hardly assign a green as grass Ranger to watch over one of the most dangerous fiefs out there, that job was reserved for the best Rangers. _Like Will._ She thought, as she rode over a small hill.

During her graduation, after much arguing and shouting, Evanlyn had finally stood down, she would allow her daughter to be assigned a fief under certain conditions. One, Maddie must be assigned a fief that is close to castle Araluen. Two, Evanlyn will assign the best young knight from that fief to protect and come to aid Maddie when necessary. Three, Maddie must come visit castle Araluen at least twice a year. Reluctantly, Maddie accepted the conditions, though after arguing that she didn't need a protector.

Gorlan had been the closest unassigned fief to castle Araluen at that time, and the crime rate in the former fief of Baron Morgarath had died down considerably since last year. So Maddie, the first female and second royal Ranger, has been assigned to Gorlan fief.

As Maddie rode over another hill, she could make out the shape of the new castle Gorlan and a far sized town near it from afar. It should be another twenty minutes of riding at the Ranger force marching pace to reach it. Or it could be only five minutes if she push Bumper to a gallop. But Maddie quickly dismissed the idea, "Mistakes are made in a rush." Will had always told her.

As she passed a large bush, she noticed that there were some scattered hoof marks and foot marks as well as wheel marks left by a caravan. Upon dismounting and closer inspection, she noticed that there was a vague imprint in the ground the shape of a short sword, and another mark that looks suspiciously like an arrow had missed and hit the road, then was retrieved. _There's been a fight here_. Maddie realised. Possibly a band of bandits ambushing a caravan transporting goods or money.

* * *

From behind the bush, a prone man was watching. He was one of the scout that his gang had sent to see whether their previous ambush sites had been discovered and investigated. As he watched the Ranger examining the marks on the road, he willed himself to breath with barely a sound. All commoners know that Rangers practiced black magic, that they can appear out of thin air, and they never, ever miss an arrow.

He'd seen enough now, time to report back to camp. As he rose slowly, thinking the Ranger was still busy inspecting the marks, the Ranger called out. "If I were you, I wouldn't move like a blundering elephant in the presence of a Ranger." The bandit was confused, the voice had been definitely female, and he knew that all Rangers were male. This had to be a fake Ranger! He was the best archer in his camp and he could probably dispose of this phony without breaking a sweat.

The man rose and pulled out his bow and arrow that lay concealed with him behind the bush. He ran out onto the road, nock an arrow, drew, aim and… Before he could fire, a green shafted arrow slammed into his right arm, causing him to drop to the ground, writhing in pain, holding his bleeding arm. The Ranger lowered her longbow, and pulled out her saxe knife and a medical kit from her saddle bag.

Maddie walked to the bleeding bandit, and yelled harshly. "Stop screaming and give me your arm." The bandit did as he was told, Maddie examined the wound and pulled the arrow out, she hadn't used one of her barbed arrows or the arrow would have to be pulled through the arm. She then took some bandages and wrapped it tightly around the arm.

The bandit glanced at Maddie's face, not daring to make eye contact, he'd expected this female Ranger to finish him off with another arrow, not giving him medical attention. As he was about to ask, Maddie said. "I need you alive for interrogation at the castle." Any colour on the man's face disappeared. He'd heard what Rangers can do to extract information, they would cut your fingers off, then move down to toes, then whole limbs, and they would make sure you feel every, single, second of pain.

"No! Please!" He screamed. "Not interrogation, torture, anything but that!" Maddie looked at the bandit with no sympathy, but her face was actually hiding confusion. She'd intended to use fear to get information from him once she arrives at the castle. Torture never works on the insane, and there's plenty of those people on the field of crime, she knew. Fear, however, always works.

Maddie put thumb cuffs on the bandit while he continued to scream in absolute fear. Then she tied a rope tightly around his wrists to Bumper so that he can't run away without bringing Bumper with him. "Come on, I'm binging you to castle Gorlan."

* * *

As Maddie rode into the town near new castle Gorlan, leading the captured bandit, all heads in the town looked up at the female Ranger. Most were just glances, but they were glances of awe, and sometimes fear. Bringing a captured criminal into the town on her first day, she realised, gives her extra intimidation, on that of being a Ranger. Upon the faces of the town's residents were looks of confusion as well. _It was natural_. She thought. _After all, there's been no female Rangers before_.

As the approached new castle Gorlan, she could make out finer details of the castle. It was quite a beautiful structure, obviously a reflection of the old castle Gorlan that she'd been told to in the stories by Halt and her grandfather, the late King Duncan. The shape of the castle walls was a square, as of regular with most castles, on each corner was a tower at least ten metres (33 feet) tall with white, elegant bridges connecting the highest floor of the towers. In the middle of the courtyard was the keep, where the Baron would be conducting his businesses. The keep was at least a good 6 metres (20 feet) taller than the other towers, with its roof being made of shiny marble. The entire castle was surrounded by a dry moat, with a drawbridge allowing entrance into the castle.

As Maddie rode onto the drawbridge, there were two guards and upon seeing her, they crossed their spears, barring the way. "State your name and reason!" They demanded in unison.

"I'm a Queen's Ranger." Came the short reply as Maddie took off her cowl, revealing her face. One of the guards, the older one, narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the youthful, feminine face of the female Ranger.

"Rangers aren't girls." He said. "Show us proof." When Maddie showed her silver oakleaf, the guard's eyes widened and he bowed. "Sorry for my impertinence, Ranger." He then signalled to his comrade to let Maddie pass.

As Maddie passed the gate, a stable hand ran to her, asking if he could take care of her horse. Normally, Maddie would prefer to take care of Bumper herself, but it has been a long road and the stable hand was sure to take care of Bumper better than she can at her tired state. So she agreed. Before she handed her reins over, Maddie untied the rope holding the bandit from Bumper and beckoned a man at arms over, telling him to put him away in one of their cells.

As the man at arms jogged away, holding the rope that held the bandit, a young page ran out of the keep, asking the other staff in the courtyard. "Is the Ranger here yet? Where is he?"

"I'm here." Maddie called. As the boy turned to the sound of the voice, his eyes widened in surprise as he realised the new Ranger was female.

"Oh, sorry miss, I had no idea." He bowed apologetically. "Baron Damian is expecting you." Maddie frowned as she heard the word 'miss', she was barely older than the boy, being called 'miss' made her felt ancient.

"Thank you, and you may be so kind as to lead me to his office." It was more of a statement than a question, and the boy nodded nervously. He then went back into the keep, with Maddie following him. The interior of the keep was very much organised, in the middle of the first floor was a large desk with two clerks writing down appointments and schedules. On the right hand, there was an office that has a wooden sign labelling 'Seneschal'. On the left hand side was a walled off area with a door leading in, that should be the quarters for soldiers. Behind the central desk was a stone stair spiralling upwards to the right.

"This way, miss" the page said, walking up the stairs.

"Call me Maddie."

"Wait, what?" the boy looked back at Maddie. He was obviously not used to being directly talked to by authority figures like Rangers.

"Just call me Maddie, that's my name. You made me feel like a grandma calling me miss. I'm barely older than you."

"Uh, yes, miss, I mean Ranger Maddie." Recovering from his mistake quickly, the page continued to lead Maddie up the stairs, ending up at the highest floor. Then he turned left and stopped at an oak door. "The Baron awaits you, Ranger Maddie." The page left.

Maddie contemplate whether she should knock or not when all of a sudden, the door swung inwards, revealing a young man in his early twenties. Before she could recover from shock, the young man took her hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Your highness! I have been waiting for you." He smiled ear to ear.

Maddie took in the man's appearance. He was blond and would be quite handsome to the ladies, taller than her by half a head, even though she'd grown five centimetres (two inches) since the start of her apprenticeship. His stance was confident and his posture relaxed.

"And you are…" Maddie said but was interrupted.

"Baron Damian of Gorlan fief." Maddie's eyebrows shot up in surprise, she'd expected the Baron of Gorlan fief to be a middle aged man with plenty of experience under his belt, not a youngster. Perhaps there's been a mistake, but the man had said that he was the Baron, so there could be no mistake. He also knew she was the Crown Princess, and only the Queen's inner circle knew about her being a Ranger.

"Maybe you would like to enter." Baron Damien stood back, allowing her to enter. When Maddie did, she saw that there were two knights sitting on high-backed chairs facing a mahogany desk that was sure to be the Baron's. Both of them was unnecessarily in full-armour and their visor were down so she couldn't see their faces. "Please sit down." The Baron said politely to her, showing her another high-backed chair.

Once she sat down, the Baron went to sit on his chair behind the desk. Once settle down, he gestured to the two knights. "One of them is the Battlemaster, can you guess which one he is?"

"A test?" Maddie rose an eyebrow, the classic Ranger expression.

"I always like to know the capability of the person I'm going to work with." Baron Damien smiled warmly.

"Fine then." Maddie sighed. She peered at the two knights and asked both of them to sit up. They both have the posture of a warrior, their armour were of top quality. For a normal person, the Battlemaster would be indistinguishable from the other knight. But Rangers were not normal people. Upon closer inspection, Maddie could see that the knight on the left side was fidgeting slightly, the sign of a person who's either nervous or bored. A Battlemaster would hardly do such a thing. Maddie gestured at the right-hand knight and said. "That's him."

"You clearly have good eyes." The Battlemaster lifted his visor, revealing a middle-aged man with a bushy moustache. "Battlemaster Chuck, at your service, your highness." He bowed. It seemed he had been informed of her identity as well.

"What about him?" Maddie gestured at the other knight, who still has his visor down.

"He's the knight assigned to protect you, your highness, don't you worry about his abilities, he's a natural." The Battlemaster explained.

Then Maddie's assigned protector lifted his visor, revealing a young face, younger than hers. It was a familiar one as well, one she has seen before, when she was running away from Jory Ruhl's gang in Trelleth fief, all those years ago. The young knight gave her a short bow. "Tim Stoker, at your service, Ranger."


	3. Chapter 3: Acquaintance

Chapter 3

"I still can't believe that you're actually the Crown Princess." Tim said for perhaps the millionth time. Once Maddie had gotten over the initial surprise that Tim Stoker, the tall, young boy that was one of the children captured by Jory Ruhl that had been rescued by her was now her assigned bodyguard, she had gotten acquainted with Baron Damien and Sir Chuck- the Gorlan Battlemaster. Then she had excused herself to leave the castle and settle down in the Gorlan Ranger cabin. Baron Damien told her that the cabin was in the woods to the west of the town. Tim had volunteered to accompany her there and show her the way, but now Maddie wondered if he did that just so he could annoy her the whole way. Before she went, Baron Damien sent her an invitation for dinner tomorrow night, which she declined.

"If I had known it five years ago, I would've been more polite to you when we were running away." Tim continued.

"I wasn't the Princess then." Maddie said, much to Tim's confusion. "I was recently disinherited when I met you, and I just got reinstated a few days ago."

"Why would you be disinherited?"

"My parents were teaching me a lesson since I used to be a brat," Maddie explained, remembering how spoiled, uncaring and frustrating she was to others back then. "They planned to reinstate me after a year, but I declined and decided to finish my entire apprenticeship, which took another four years."

"You declined?" Tim asked, even more confused. He couldn't understand why Maddie would decline the authority and luxury that comes with simply being royalty.

"Living in a stuck-up castle all day and having to attend to needlepoint and dance classes isn't really my style. I enjoy the freedom that comes with being a Ranger." Maddie explained. Tim nodded slowly, understanding dawning on his face.

"And the last time I checked, it was a knight's job to whack and bash people while the Ranger does the talking and asking, not the other way around." Maddie said, implying that she was annoyed with his unrelenting questioning.

"You're not whacking anyone right now." Tim said, confused yet again.

"I'm going to whack you if you ask more questions." Tim bit his lip to prevent himself from asking anything.

As they rode into the woods, following a thin trail. Maddie said. "You know, I think it's time for me to ask _you_ questions now. How did you become a knight? The last time I met you, you were a boy in a village with oppressive parents, not to mention in an entirely different fief."

"It's a long story." Came a short reply.

"And we have quite a long time, Baron Damien told me the cabin should be another kilometres ahead, followed by another to the left." In truth, Maddie was very curiously about how what happened to the tall warrior since the last time she'd seen him.

"Well, shortly after I was returned to my family, my father died in a fight at the inn and my mom died a month after that due to a fever. With no parents and no other relatives, I ran away. Ran all the way to Gorlan fief. The only mean of survival I had was begging for food and money, I did it for maybe half a year until I met Battlemaster Chuck. When Battlemaster Chuck found me, it was when I saw a man being robbed by an armed thief. He had aknife while I had no weapon so I picked up a branch on the side of the road and used to attack him. Somehow I managed to parry his strikes and knock the thief unconscious. Battlemaster Chuck spectated the whole thing, said I had potential and sponsored me for Battleschool. He's a kind man, Battlemaster Chuck, convinced Baron Damien's father to let me into the Battleschool, he also cared for me like a son he never had. And the rest is history." During the story, Maddie couldn't help but felt sympathetic for Tim. He was only a boy when both of his parents passed away. He was very lucky to have met someone like Battlemaster Chuck. Unknowingly, they had also arrived at a clearing and in the middle of the clearing was a small wooden cabin with a small stable nearby. They halted their horses.

"It seems we've arrived." Tim commented. "Well, I must be off now."

"By the way, do you drink coffee?" Maddie asked. Tim nodded, not knowing why the question was asked. "Well then, would you mind staying for some?" She was starting to enjoy the young knight's company and didn't want him to go yet.

"Well, the only thing on my schedule today was meeting you, and that's done now, so I guess I don't need to go back yet."

"You have a schedule?" Maddie asked, surprised.

"All knights do. Famous knights have fuller schedules than others. Take the example of your father, the Oakleaf Knight, his schedule is probably full all month." Tim, for the first time, knew something that Maddie didn't. "Don't they tell princesses that?"

Maddie shrugged. "Never payed attention."

They dismounted and led the horses into the small stable. Both of their horses were fresh and needed no caring for now. Maddie found two full buckets of water and brought it to the horses and brought some hay that she'd stowed in her saddle bags. When Maddie entered the cabin with Tim, she noticed that it had signs of having been thoroughly clean and when she went to check the water tank, it was full. The firewood had been chopped as well and all the dishes were shining.

Upon seeing this, Tim said. "The Baron didn't want you having to clean your cabin, you being royalty and all, so he had maids clean this place daily."

"Tell him thanks but I don't need it. I do my own chores." Maddie commented as she inspected the bear hide rug that covered most of the living room, then added. "Well, at least I don't have to get water to make coffee." Maddie noted that the hidden strongbox that every cabin has was untouched.

Maddie then went to Bumper in the stable, rummage through her saddle bag and took out a container of coffee beans and an utensil that she uses to grind the beans. She also took a container of honey with her and a sealed jar of milk. When she went to the small kitchen, she boiled the water, grinded the coffee beans into fine powder and added it into the water, making sure that all of it dissolve and poured the coffee into two separate cups that she found in one of the cupboards. She glanced at Tim and saw that he was already sitted at the table looking expectantly at the coffee, she swear she could see him drooling at it. She brought the two cups over the table and handed one to Tim. Then she took the containers of honey and milk as well as a tablespoon. She added a few spoonful of honey into her cup as well as milk and gestured for Tim to help himself. Tim added nothing.

"Drinking it dark?" She rose an eyebrow while sipping the coffee slowly, enjoying the hot, sweet drink as it courses through her.

"I can't stand anything sweat, that's all."

"Do you drink coffee often?" Maddie continued asking.

"Coffee supplies in castle Gorlan often runs short due to the seneschal often forgetting to order coffee. Then again, any amount of coffee would be gone in matter of days at the rate that me and Battlemaster Chuck drinks it. He introduced me to coffee you know." Tim inhaled the heavenly smell of coffee.

Tim stayed at the cabin and they talked the entire length of that afternoon. Maddie found out that Tim was nearly as addicted to coffee as she was, if not more. She also found out that Baron Damien was also seeking permission to promote Tim to a Royal Guard from the Queen, a Royal Guard would be tasked with the responsibility of protecting members of the royal family. It would make his job of protecting Maddie official so he could work full-time without interruptions from his schedule. _It would also technically make him my champion_. Maddie realised what Tim's possible promotion meant. She would have to discuss with Baron Damien about this matter. During their talking, Tim learnt that Maddie knew how to play a mandola and asked if she could perform for him.

Maddie retrieved the mandola from her saddle bag, Will had taught her how to tune and play the mandola during the apprenticeship, when she had asked why Rangers need know how to play a mandola, he only said it was for disguising as travelling jongleurs. Maddie started tuning the strings of the mandola, it had become out of tune during the ride to Gorlan fief. She'd started playing, starting with the traditional Ranger song- Cabin in the Trees and continuing to popular folk songs. Tim sat there, silently, watching the attractive female Ranger played and sang, until she reached her final song, which was her mentor's favourite- Greybeard Halt.

"Would Ranger Halt like the fact that you're mocking him with this song?" Tim asked, concerned.

"I didn't create this song, Will Treaty- my mentor did. He's a former apprentice of Halt. So if anyone is going to get punished, it's my mentor. Which he already did, mind you, I remember Halt telling me how he forced Will to stay on a tree all night."

"The famous Will Treaty got punished for writing a song mocking his mentor?" Tim said in amazement, he'd heard tales of the legendary Ranger, even met Will Treaty himself five years ago, and he couldn't imagine such a figure had ever been punished for mocking his mentor as a boy.

"Yep. And from what I've heard from Halt, it was hilarious." Maddie smiled.

"And you know Ranger Halt too?" Tim was even more amazed, the tales of Ranger Halt was basically every kid's bedtime story.

"Yeah. The thing is about Halt, after decades of facing fearsome warriors, assassins and beasts, the only things that he's ever afraid of are…" Maddie dragged out the sentence to see if Tim could guess.

"Wargals and Kalkaras? Baron Morgarath coming back alive?" Tim guessed.

"Wrong. The only things he's ever afraid of are sea travelling and his wife." Maddie said. Tim was absolutely dumbfounded, the idea of such a heroic figure cowering in front of his wife or afraid of travelling on waters was mind boggling.

They would kept talking, reaching topics about the other's life. When Tim had to leave before dusk (the drawbridge at castle Gorlan was often lifted at dusk), Maddie couldn't help but feel a bit lonely as she watched Tim leaving the clearing on his battlehorse, Sprinter.

Maddie went to her saddle bag, got some food and made a humble dinner for herself, as well as another cup of coffee. As she sat there, sipping the coffee, she thought she knew what it must felt like for Will just before she'd arrived to be his apprentice, alone. Except he would be dealing with grief as well, loneliness combined with grief was just an unbearable concept to Maddie. One at a time? Sure. But both? No way.

As the night wore on, Maddie couldn't help but felt even lonelier. _Is this what a Ranger life is like?_ She asked herself. After she'd done the dishes, she had nothing to do so she went to sleep early. Taking off her cloak, which she didn't realised she had worn all day without taking it off once, and donning a nightly attire, Maddie laid on her bed and had a restless sleep. She would probably be busy for the entire week.


	4. Chapter 4: Murder

Chapter 4

Maddie was busy for the entire week.

During her apprenticeship, Will taught her that whenever a Ranger is assigned to a new fief, the first thing that Ranger does should be collecting information. So that's exactly what Maddie did. She had went to every single town, village and hamlet in Gorlan fief, no matter how small or diminutive. She chose to disguise herself as a traveller to extract information about the state of being of Gorlan fief. Will told her, during her apprenticeship, that the presence of a Ranger can unnerve just about anyone, and her being the first female Ranger would just make people suspicious and reluctant as well.

From the amount of things she'd heard from the people of Gorlan, the fief was quite stable, with the majority of its people being more wealthy than average. Most of them were also very happy with their current condition. There had been a huge decline in the crime rate in the last two years ever since Baron Damien established a crime watch comprised solely of knights called the Knight Watch- Baron Damien confirmed the name was pun intended- who watched over the people and protected them from bandits, thieves and brigands, as well as capturing those criminals. Unlike most Barons of other fiefs, who couldn't care less about what their people want, Baron Damien seemed abnormally interested in the well-being of his subjects.

She also listened to simple gossip and the everyday goings-on of the fief, most of it were pretty trivial at the time, she can never know when knowing how much lady A bought more food than lady B migth just accidentally save the whole fief. Information, no matter how unimportant it might seems at first glance, was a Ranger's lifeblood. That and coffee. Maddie was pretty sure she drank enough coffee throughout that entire week to have coffee actually flowing through her veins.

When she'd asked the locals if anything suspicious has happened recently, they had said three huge, bear like creatures with long, sharp claws were spotted together near the ruins of the castle Gorlan a couple months ago, but Maddie dismissed it as actual bears being spotted. No need to be worried about anything, the creature had only been seen once, though Maddie would investigate it if it was continued to be spotted.

When assessing the castle staff, she noticed that there were no shortages, when she asked about this, Baron Damien had explained this peculiar system he had set up the year he became Baron of Gorlan fief. Every year, he would host an event that allows all youths of the age of fifteen to be apprenticed under his Craftmasters if they show the potential, it was not unlike Choosing day in Redmont. Though the family of the apprentice would have to pay a small fee to enter their child into an apprenticeship.

* * *

Maddie was assessing the Battleschool training of Gorlan fief a few weeks after she had arrived at Gorlan fief. First year apprentices semmed to be abundant in numbers, though most of them lacked most of the skills to be a knight. There were much less second year apprentices, however, presumably due to the expulsion of apprentices who didn't make the cut.

A class of fourth year apprentices were drilling specific combat sequences, led by an instructor so Maddie had come to watch, leaning against a fence, her cowl concealing her face. There were some knights watching too, discussing to each other, pointing at certain apprentices who seemed to be more fluent at combat techniques than others, catching out mistakes. Among them were Tim Stoker, she noted. She hadn't seen him since the day she arrived at Gorlan. He seemed to be quite popular and respected among his peers, some of them even turned to him for advice and corrections even though he must be the youngest out of all the knights in Gorlan.

Tim spotted her leaning against the fence, beamed, and walked over to her. He stopped in front of her. "How do like Gorlan so far, your highness?" He smiled and bowed respectfully. She frowned at his use of the word 'your highness'.

"Don't call me your highness. I hate it when people call me that. Call me Maddie instead. And also stop bowing, people are watching" Maddie said in a hushed voice, suddenly conscious that some Battleschool apprentices were watching them.

"Well, you're royalty, aren't you? At Battleschool we're taught to show members of the royal family utmost respect at all times." Tim said, glancing at the Battleschool apprentices. "When we actually get the honour to e in their presence that is." He added.

"Well, you didn't bow every five seconds when we were at my cabin, didn't you? Plus, but the fact that the Crown Princess of Araluen is a Ranger isn't a well-known fact, isn't it?" Maddie asked rhetorically.

"I guess not, but still…"

"So just act casual around me, talk to me like I'm a Ranger, not a princess. Actually no, talk to me like a friend, that's even better."

"A friend? Well I mean, we did ran away from Jory Ruhl's gang together, and you did save me from being sold as a slave…" Tim went on, unsure about the prospect of having a Ranger as a friend, especially one that was also royalty. "It depends on whether you want me as a friend."

"Yes, I do want you as a friend. We Rangers get lonely sometimes, you know." Maddie reluctantly confessed, blushing a little. "And you're also my bodyguard so I might as well get to know you better." She explained her intentions.

Then suddenly, a shrill scream pierced through the Battleschool. All heads turned towards the source of the sound, where a maid ran out of the dormitory.

"What is this ruckus that's going on?" Sir Chuck stepped out from under the shade of tree, he had been spectating the Battleschool apprentices training.

"MURDER! MURDER!" The maid screamed, horror evident in her voice.

"Murder? Where? Tell us!"

"In the left wing of the dormitory, last door to the right. He's dead on the floor." The maid gave the directions through sobs. As soon as she heard it, Maddie ran into the dormitory before anyone could stop her or made to follow.

She entered the corridor and turned left when it branched off into two opposite directions, leading into another long corridor with doors lining the two walls symmetrically. Maddie ran to the end of the corridor and opened the last door to the right.

There were to bunk beds pushed to the sides, as was the layouts of most Battleschool dormitory rooms. There was a two long tables at the end of the room were the Battleschool apprentices could do their homework. There was a small window at the back that could be open to let in fresh air. Normally, in a dormitory room, that would be all the interesting features. Except for the dead body dressed in full-armour lying in a puddle of blood in the middle of the room.

She heard heavy footsteps running towards her direction and Sir Chuck and a half a dozen other knights appeared by her side. "Ranger." He nodded. He couldn't use the term 'your majesty' since there were other people around them at that moment. "What happened in there?"

"See for yourself." Maddie stepped back, allowing the Battlemaster to look in the room.

"He's dead." He spoke in a quiet voice. That caused quite a stir among the knights.

"Dead?" One of them asked, as if wanting confirmation even though he already had it.

The Battlemaster entered the room, took an armoured gauntlet off, held the body's hand up, noticing it was still warm, and tried to find a pulse. There was none. "Yes, dead." He confirmed.

"This would be your job to investigate though, Ranger." He stepped back to let Maddie enter the room.

Maddie entered and knelt down to touch the body's wrist, also trying to find a pulse, Rangers were better at detecting pulses than knights. But she found the same result as the Battlemaster. "The body's still warm." She noted.

"Yes, he is. He died recently, maybe less than an hour ago." Chuck nodded.

"Has anybody entered, or leave the Battleschool in that time?" Maddie asked.

"I'll ask the guards." He promised.

"Tell the guards to close off the gate as well, and have more guards patrolling the perimeter to catch anybody who tries to sneak out, or in." Maddie said and Battlemaster Chuck relayed the order from her to one of his trusted senior knights, which would be in turn delivered to the guards. The Gorlan Battleschool was surrounded by a three metres (10 feet) high stone wall with sharp spikes on the top so the only entrance and exit would be the gate. It was very unlikely the culprit could've tried climbing over the walls.

"Do you know who this was?" Maddie asked, motioning to the body. Battlemaster Chuck lifted the visor obscuring the face of the body, studied the face, a flash of recognition on his face.

"It's Alan Trot! One of my senior knights. He's been missing for a month!" The Battlemaster exclaimed. Many knights still in the corridor stirred at the mention of the name.

"Missing for a month?" Maddie inquired. That's an extremely long amount of time for a person to be missing and turned up being killed recently. Chances are Alan Trot had been held captive somewhere, and may or may not have been still alive when he was brought into the room. Already questions started to form in Maddie's mind. Why held Alan Trot captive for a month? Why only kill him now? Why did they bring his body into this dormitory room? And who benefits? They obviously wanted this body to be discovered, looking at how they made no attempt at concealing it. And Maddie would hardly call a dormitory room a good hiding place for anything but maybe an illegal stash of candies.

"Yes, no one has seen him for that long. He went to visit his old parents one day and never came back. When we went to his parent's residence, they said he never arrived at their house." Battlemaster Chuck told Maddie.

"So let me get this straight. One of your senior knights went missing for a month and just suddenly turned up recently dead in one of your Battleschool dormitory rooms?"

"Uh, yes." Battlemaster Chuck suddenly sounded uncertain. After all, for the body to appear in the dormitory room, the murderer would have to first bring Alan, dead or alive, into the room, and escaped. And someone surely would have seen the culprit exited the room, and the window's too small for an escape route. After all, at the time Alan was killed, the entire yard would be filled with apprentices.

Maddie continued examining the body. When taking the armour off Alan's body, she saw that he was dressed raggedly and was very thin. Whoever captured him definitely didn't see the need to feed him more than he needed to survive. When looking at his whole body, she noticed that there were severe burn marks and all his fingernails had been pulled out. The same were for the toenails. "Whoever had Alan captive until now tortured him." She announced. Much to the outrage of several knights who knew Alan Trot personally.

"Monsters! Why did they do such a thing?" Several knights bellowed in anguish.

"Now, now," Maddie said calmly. "We don't even who did this yet, so I'd rather you hold onto your anger until we find the identity of the culprit." Or culprits, she realised, after all, someone could've covered for the person who brought Alan into the room. In fact, it seemed extremely likely. She would have to explore that possibility later on though.

Searching under Alan's ragged tunic, she found a dagger embedded deep inside his torso, with only the handle not covered in blood. Pulling out the dagger, she noticed that wrapped around the handle, was a piece of paper.

Unwrapping the piece of paper, she saw that there were words written on it. Her eyes widened when she read the contents. Noticing her facial features changed when she read the paper, several knights were curious. One of them asked, tentatively. "What does it say, Ranger?"

She read the piece of paper out loud. "Every twenty-four hours, ten will die. Signed. The Masters of Death."

* * *

 **Sorry for not uploading yesterday, I'm trying to upload at least four or five times a week while balancing between writing, school and tutoring.**

 **Any reviews or criticism would be greatly appreciated. English is not my first language so I always hope to improve.**

 **Ps: I've changed it from '** **Every twenty-four hours, another one will die.' to 'Every twenty-four hours, another ten will die." Because when you think about it, Gorlan probably has a population ranging from 4000-5000 so the chance of you being killed would be less than 0.025%.  
**


	5. Chapter 5: Assassin

**To whom it may concern, I have updated chapter 3 slightly, fixed some mistakes then and there. I'm also very sorry for not updating for a few days, I've just been busy with my tutoring and Methods Maths course.**

* * *

Chapter 5

"This is bad." Baron Damien paced back and forth in his study, mumbling. It had only been an hour since Alan Trot had been discovered dead and already the news had spread like wildfire. Many people were panicking due to the content of the note that Maddie read. Most people assumed that the note had meant that for every day, ten people will be killed. This caused people to fear they might be one of those unlucky few, as unlikely of a chance that is. Nearly two hundred people had already flocked out of Gorlan, seeking another place to live.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Tim said optimistically. Battlemaster Chuck and Maddie had gone to the baron to report the incident of Alan Trot and Baron Damien had summoned Tim a short while later.

"Yes it is, Tim. Yes it is." Battlemaster Chuck shook his head gravely. "Already the people are panicking, many shops and businesses are closing down and we simply cannot afford for this to go on any longer or the economy of Gorlan is going down quicker than Morgarath's army." He deliberately made a reference to the defeat of the former Baron of Gorlan.

"So the only way we can stop people from fearing they're next on the kill list is finding out who's behind this and arrest them." Baron Damien said. "Your majesty, I'm sure you have an idea of who's doing this." Baron Damien addressed Maddie. He was taught by his father to trust the Ranger, they can always get you out of bad situation.

Maddie spoke, rising from her seat that she was previously sitting on while Baron Damien was still pacing the study. "I do know a few things, whoever these 'Masters of Death' are, they clearly want people to fear them. Sir Chuck, you said Alan Trot was one of your senior knights, correct?" the knight in question nodded. "And was he a capable warrior?" Sir Chuck nodded again.

"One of my best." He said

"So by showing that an experienced and capable knight could be killed by them, it implied that they kill you, no matter your position in life or how much protection you have." Maddie said, making sure everybody understands. "Baron Damien, they were clear signs that Alan had been tortured before his demise, do you know if he held any information that needed to be extracted?"

Baron looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then answered. "The only thing that I can think of would be the schedule of castle Gorlan's watch and servants, and possibly the layout of the keep."

"Wait, if they want to know those specific information." Tim said. "Don't you think they might be targeting you, my lord?"

"I have considered that possibility, my death would definitely bring pandemonium onto the fief." Baron Damien nodded in agreement.

"Then we have to relocate you to somewhere safer, my lord." Battlemaster Chuck said, worry evident in his voice.

"No, I will stay." Baron Damien shook his head. Maddie raised in eyebrow at his response.

"But, my lord… I cannot allow you to be killed." Battlemaster Chuck pleaded.

"Think about, Chuck, do you know of any other place in Gorlan fief safer than this castle?" He spoke calmly, trying to help Chuck see his reasoning. "And I've got a plan."

"A plan?" said Sir Chuck and Tim in unison, their tone surprised. Maddie, however, knew where Baron Damien was getting at.

"If the Masters on Death are indeed coming for my life, then let them have it." Damien said. Sir Chuck looked at his lord as if he just grew four fingers from his bellybutton.

"I don't actually mean let them kill me." The baron explained. "But use me as a bait, lure them into my residence at the top floor of the keep, and then trap them in it." Before Sir Chuck could object. He continued.

"Don't worry about my safety, two guards will be hiding in my bedroom while I pretend to be asleep as an extra safety measure."

"I would like to take part in this." Maddie said, finding the plan very interesting.

"But your majesty! You simply cannot." Tim leapt to his feet at Maddie's words.

"What did I say about calling me your majesty or your highness again?" She folded her arms on her chest.

"Uh, not to call you by those titles anymore." Tim's volume decreased by ten folds. He couldn't help but feel like a child being scolded by his mother.

"Correct. And now why do you think I can't handle myself?" She lifted an eyebrow, the classic Ranger expression.

Tim nearly used stupid answers like 'Because you're a girl' or 'because you're royalty and you need protecting.' Luckily, he stopped himself because he knew saying would probably warrant a kick in the crotch from Maddie. On his career list, getting kicked in the sensitive region by a princess wasn't very high up there. So he simply stayed silent.

Then Baron Damien barged into the argument. "If you may consider, Ranger Maddie." He cautioned around the word 'your majesty' due to seeing her scolding Tim for using it. "Your safety is one of the most important thing in the kingdom right now. If you were to lose your life, your mother- the Queen of Araluen would have no heir."

"Yes." Maddie agreed, and Tim felt a spark of hope that Maddie would not take part in capturing the Masters of Death. "It would be very unfortunate if I were to die. It would be expected of me to stay in a safe place while the plan is under way." Maddie nodded and Tim's spark of hope ignited into a blazing fire. "But that would only happen if I was a helpless girl, instead, I'm a Ranger." And Tim's hope was extinguished quicker than an ember in a blizzard.

"Plus," She added. "In case that these assassin manage to escape, you would need someone able to track him at night. Come on, it's not like I'm afraid of breaking my fingernail or some stupid excuse like that."

"All right, you made your point." Baron Damien sighed. "Not only are you capable of handling yourself but your skills are potentially necessary in capturing the Masters of Death."

"Finally, someone who lets me do something for once. Tim is so over-protective all of a sudden." Maddie pointed a thumb at Tim. "I know he's supposed to protect me and whatnot, but that doesn't mean I'm a damsel in distress."

"But it's my duty…" Tim started to argue but Baron Damien held up a hand to stop him. The gesture seemed to say _please stop_.

"Now that everything has been agreed upon, all we need to do now is assemble a team to ambush these Masters of Death. I trust you to do that, Chuck." The baron said.

"Yes, my lord." Battlemaster Chuck bowed and exited the study. His footsteps could be heard as he descended the stairs.

"Great, now that everything's underway, I have one extremely question to ask you, Baron Damien." Maddie said and the said Baron expected the female Ranger to ask a life and death question or something of similar importance when Maddie spoke. "Do you have coffee in this castle?"

* * *

It was the dead of night, a cloaked figure wearing a skull-shaped mask laid prone in the thick grassland north of castle Gorlan. He was armed with an assortment of weapons; throwing knives, a small one-handed crossbow and also an extremely acidic substance that he bought from a merchant who said he bought it from the best healer in Araluen.

The masked killer knew that there is only one guard on the north wall and the guard shift will change in the next five minutes. During that time before that, the current guard will no longer be alert, and will instead be bored and tired as he looked forward to be relieved of his duty. Now would be the best of all times to strike.

The assassin lifted himself into a crouch and made his way steadily over to the base of the wall, climbing down the dry moat. He was lucky that the moat didn't have sharpened stakes placed in it, because one slip can mean death for him.

The figure took out a rope hook and used all his strength to launch the hook over the wall, hitting the about-to-be-relieved guard right on the jaw, knocking him out. The assassin then reeled in the rope, until he heard a solid clank of the hook embedding into the stone battlements above. He tugged at the rope to test if the hook would be pulled out if he climbs up, and decided that the hook would hold.

He jumped on the rope, climbing methodically yet quickly at the same time, reaching the top of the wall in no times. Once on the top of the wall, he dragged the fallen guard to one of the battlements and leaned him against it in a way that you would think he dosed off on his watch. The masked figure then made his way over to the north-west tower and stationed himself to the right of the door that allows guards in the tower to reach the top of the wall.

A couple of minutes later, the door opened outwards to the left, so that the assassin was concealed by the door from whoever opened it. The guard that opened the door saw his unconscious comrade laying on the stone wall and ran to check on him. But the guard didn't take more than four steps when he felt a searing pain in his neck, he wanted to scream out in pain but found he couldn't, blood has flown into his windpipe. Then the world went dark.

 _At least the others only have to kill eight now_. The killer thought, as the guard crumpled to the floor, dead. The assassin entered the north-west tower and descended onto the courtyard below. As expected, the courtyard was empty, not a sign of movement. A bit suspicious, at least some men at arms should still be here, chatting after they've been relieved of their shift hours ago. But then again, it was probably the last shift of the night, and surely most soldiers in the castle were deep in their sleep.

The cloaked killer then made his way to the keep. Facing the wall, the made sure that his stone brick coloured cloak would conceal all of his features. Then, walking to his side slowly, he got to the section of the wall closest to the keep. The assassin crouched down and inch his way to the way, making sure that no guards from the walls and towers can't spot him.

Once he got to the keep, he opened the door into it carefully, making no creaks are heard. If the door was to protest, it would mean the end of his mission. And his life.

As he stealthily entered the keep, he looked over his shoulder briefly, to see if he has been spotted, but no one had. According to the information they extracted from that knight, all servants in the castle should be asleep in their quarters, so there was no need to be stealthy anymore since he was inside now.

He located the stairs spirally upwards to the right and frowned. It was a common defence strategy to have castle stairs that spiralled to the right. A defender would only have to expose his sword arm in order to swing, while the attacker has to expose his entire body to strike. If someone had known he was here, they could've easily hidden on the stairs, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Then he shook that thought away, if someone had known, surely the Baron would've been informed and further fortified the castle. But it was always best to be safe.

He ascended the stairs, keeping to the far left and anxious for that blow, but it never came. He made it to the fifth floor and highest floor of the keep, where the Baron of Gorlan fief-his target- is supposedly asleep in his bed chamber. The baron's study should be linked to his bed chamber and the masked killer knew that it should be to the far left.

He made his way to the study, opening the door slowly, there were no creaks, and it was as if all the doors in the castles have had their hinges oiled recently. Well, more convenient for him. He scanned the study briefly and entered confidently, thinking that his mission will be a successful one.

Then out of nowhere, he heard heavy footsteps and four fully armoured knights and a figure wearing a mottled cloak barred the door leading outside the study. The assassin gasped in surprise and terror. He would have no chance against four armoured knights. He scanned the room at lightning speed for an alternative exit, but there were none, all the windows were either too small or too far away. In that case, the best he could do killing off the baron quickly and then kill himself in order to avoid capture.

The assassin sprinted to the bed chamber, which he knew was to his right. As he barged through the door, he was assaulted by searing pain from is thigh. He fell to the floor, screaming in pain, clutching his quadriceps where a green-shafted arrow had stuck its way deep inside the muscle. The desperate assassin whipped out his crossbow at amazing speed, despite his pain. The crossbow had been already loaded with a poisoned arrow, he aimed it at the sleeping form of the baron in his bed, less than three metres (10 feet) away. Just before he pulled the trigger, however, another green-shafted arrow buried itself into his arm, causing the weapon to fall out of his grip. Another scream of pain teared through the room.

Two knights went over to him and picked him up by the armpit. They dragged him in front of the cowled figure wearing the mottled cloak, who was holding a powerful longbow. The assassin looked up as the figure threw her cowl back.

The archer was obviously female, young and very attractive. Her blond hair fell down to her shoulders and her green eyes almost sparkled when they assessed the assassin. Then his face drained of all its colour when his eyes fell on her collar. She was wearing a silver oakleaf, therefore this young woman was a Ranger. The masked assassin was a superstitious man, he believed in magic and knew that Rangers practiced black sorcery, they wore enchanted cloaks to make themselves invisible to the eye and used magic arrows that always hit their targets. The assassin screamed in terror, kicking his uninjured leg, trying to crawl away from the female Ranger. He thought that she was deciding whether to turn him into ash with her magic.

Maddie stared, with great confusion, at the terrified assassin trying to get away from her while the knights try to hold him down. "No!" He pleaded. "Don't turn me to ash!" It wasn't until one of the knights took off the assassin's mask, revealing a bearded, middle-aged man, and produced a length of cloth, which he used to gag the killer.

Tim appeared by Maddie's side, looking at the assassin who was staring at Maddie with horrified eyes. "He seems scared of you." He said.

"I wonder why." Maddie said. Tim stared at Maddie with an incredulous expression. Did she really not know what people really think Rangers are? Tim was just about to explain to her about the assassin's behaviour when he stopped himself, it would be funny to see people soil their pants while Maddie is confused out of her mind.

Baron Damien entered the study from the bedroom, wearing chainmail. It was one of their safety nets in case the assassin manage to get close to him. He motioned for the knights to take out the gag and kneeled down to the killer, who had calmed down a little. "Who do you work for?" Damien questioned. The assassin spat at the baron's face. An armoured fist came from one of the knights, landing solidly on the man's face. Maddie winced at the blow. The man probably lost a tooth or two.

"Tell him!" The knight shouted harshly, Maddie recognised the voice as Battlemaster Norris. The man was intensely loyal and would do anything to protect his lord. Now he was angry and how disrespectful this assassin was. He was about to strike again when Baron Damien put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head disapprovingly when he looked back.

Baron Damien asked the killer again. "Who do you work for?"

The assassin considered for a moment and said. "The Masters of Death."

"Well, that seems to confirm it." Tim whispered to Maddie. She nodded.

"And where would they be?" Baron Damien asked.

"Like as if I'd tell you." The assassin sneered.

"I bet that Ranger over there would love that answer." Damien gestured at Maddie. "Maybe I should tell her to turn you into a worm so I can squash you." The assassin's face drained of all its colour.

Maddie was about to argue that she could do no such things when Tim stopped her. He mouthed the words. "Look what will happen."

"They're hiding in the forest south east of the town, near Lake Crystal. We have twenty people there, most of them can fight. Albert is our leader, he chooses the targets. We wanted people to move out of the fief so we have more villages with low populations to raid." The assassin spilled out everything hastily.

The baron considered what he just been told and thought it was probably truthful. He had a thoughtful expression on his face as he stared into space."My lord, what are you thinking?" Asked Sir Norris.

He baron looked at his most trusted advisor and friend. "I just planned a very nasty surprise for these Masters of Death." He smiled.


	6. Chapter 6: Master's Downfall

**So I had no idea what to name this chapter so I was just kinda** **¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. Now I'm taking any name suggestions for this chapter. Also, I intended this chapter to have nearly 4000 words at first but decided that's too long and instead split it into two chapters.  
**

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Chapter 6

Albert Slice, the leader of the Masters of Death gang, a small but deadly organisation, sat in his large tent examining a map of Gorlan. He was debating with himself whether to strike the large village Treebee, or the small town Holeout.

Treebee would be very vulnerable at this time of the year, six of its families had fled from Gorlan fief. The village also does not have a peacekeeping force or a watch to protect it. Any resistance given when they raid would likely be unorganised and scattered.

Holeout, however, would have more goods and valuables to be ransacked. It just became big enough to be call a town anyways so Albert doubted that a town's watch had been established. Even if there were some type of organised resistance, Albert's men would still wipe them out easily, though they might suffer some casualties. Then again, he rarely gave his men's lives any thoughts. Yes, they would strike Holeout tomorrow. Following that will be Treebee.

Albert exited his tent to shout out their target for tomorrow when he saw one of his men arriving at camp on horseback. That would be one of the assassins returning from a mission. The man stayed mounted in front of Albert. The Masters of Death had recruited several professional assassins to their ranks recently. Their job was to eliminate anyone that the gang thinks of as a nuisance or threat.

"Mission gone well?" He asked, not that he was concerned. The assassin wouldn't be back yet if it hadn't.

"Yeah, poor bastard didn't know what hit him." The assassin replied.

"I trust that you didn't leave a trace back to our camp?"

"Doubt those villagers can even spot it, much less follow it. By the way, where's Sneak? He has returned from his mission, hasn't he?"

Albert shook his head.

Then, from the trees, a green shafted arrow slammed into the assassin's throat, killing him instantly. Albert screamed in terror and fell to the ground in shock. Another green shafted arrow followed shortly, this time hitting the man nearest to Albert, injuring him. Albert scanned the tree lines but could not see anyone, even though he arguably had the keenest eyes in the gang.

Suddenly, the sound of galloping horses, the clanking of armour and men running could be heard. A group of a dozen fully armoured knights had charged right into his camp, followed shortly by three dozen men at arms. The members of his gang were fleeing, being captured or killed.

Shaking himself out of shock, Albert scrambled upright, mounted the horse that his assassin comrade had fell off of when he died, and galloped the opposite direction from the knights and men at arms. He was the leader of the gang so if he were to be captured, he would likely be hanged or at the least sentenced to rot in the dungeon for all his life.

Maddie was watching the assault on the Masters of Death's camp being undergone from the nearby tree. The plan was that Maddie would pick off as many as possible with her longbow to cause chaos, which would be the signal for the attack, then the cavalry would charge the camp, followed shortly by the men at arms. It was a simple plan, really. But then again, a simple plan had less elements that could go wrong.

After signalling for the men to attack, Maddie would continue providing support from a range and had the job of picking off escaping gang members. Right now she could see a man on horseback fleeing from the scene. Maddie raised her already half-drawn bow, aimed, drew, and fired in an instinctive motion that had been drilled into her through years of training. She watched her green shafted arrow soar through the air and knew it was a good shot. The arrow slammed into the man's right shoulder and he fell from his horse. Judging from a distance, she could tell that the man was still alive, which was good. Baron Damien had told her during the briefing of the plan to maim and injure, but not kill. The members of the Masters of Death gang needed to be brought back alive for trial.

As Maddie continued shooting, incapacitating at least three more men from one hundred and twenty metres (400 feet) away, she noticed something was wrong. The assassin they'd captured told them that there were twenty people in the gang excluding him, but from here she could only count fourteen gang members, the Masters of Death were easily distinguishable from the surcoat-wearing knights and men at arms.

Suddenly, half a dozen arrows sailed through the air and landed in the masses of knight and men at arms. Five of the arrows hit, killing or injuring their targets. Maddie traced the trajectory of the arrows and found six figures holding crossbows, approximately ninety metres (300 feet) away from the fighting, aiming at the knights and men at arms. They had obviously either escaped or were not present during the initial assault and had grouped up to rain arrows on Maddie's allies. If this continued, they would suffer many casualties.

Thinking quickly, Maddie pulled out six arrows from her quiver and held them all in her draw hand. Then, she aimed, drew and fired them in quick succession, instantly having another arrow in her hand once she fired one. It was a skill that Will had taught her during her fourth year of apprenticeship. You hold all of the arrows that you're going to shoot in your draw hand with your ring and pinkie fingers, then you quickly rotate an arrow into your drawing fingers once you fired one. By doing this, you won't need to reach for more arrows from your quiver each time you fire, saving precious time. Maddie had downed all six of the enemies within four seconds, a speed and accuracy of which she was amazed by. She didn't even know how she pulled it off, the chance that at least one of her arrows would miss was nearly certain.

Then the victory horn sounded shortly after, Maddie knew the horn signalled victory for the Gorlan garrison. She could hear the cheering all the way from the top of the tree. Maddie climbed down the tree and joined the troops below. She saw that they had captured nine members of the Masters of Death gang, including their leader, Albert Slice. But their side hadn't got off easy, one knight and eight men at arms laid dead, some of their comrades were wrapping up their bodies with sheets so they could bury them at later time.

When the troops saw her, many of them cheered and ran to compliment on her archery skill, obviously they had seen what she'd done to the enemy crossbowmen. Most enthusiastic out of them was Tim. He came out from the masses of men and gave her a hug that nearly suffocated her. He finally let go after ten seconds when he realised that he was hugging a princess and doing so without consent could actually be considered treason. He apologised but Maddie told him it was fine, just make sure he doesn't accidentally break her ribs next time.

* * *

That night, Baron Damien hosted a feast to celebrate the downfall of the Masters of Death. Maddie was the centre of attention, many of the surviving combatants had exaggerated her feats in the assault. Somehow people, even nobles, believed that she had single-handedly brought down thirty men with only ten arrows (how is that possible?), even though there were only twenty people in the Masters of Death gang. She even tried to convince people that those tales were all just exaggerations but they just said she was being too modest.

Many of the people at the feast commented on how unusual it was for such a girl like her to be a Ranger, a role that had been known to have only been occupied by male. Most asked her why she joined the Ranger Corps, in which she replied. "Why not?"

It was near the end of the feast when Tim joined her, sitting down on an adjacent chair. "So… how do you like the feast?" He asked.

"I don't like being the centre of attention. I actually have stage fright sometimes when standing in front of too many people." She admitted, blushing a tiny bit. Tim realised that Maddie always blushed when admitting something she doesn't want most people to know or is embarrassing.

 _She looked really pretty when she blushes though._ He thought. Then he shook that thought away. _Stop it, Tim, she's freaking royalty! You just a lowly knight descended from a long line of lowly farmers. You've got no chance._

"Stage fright? You?" Tim asked, surprised.

Maddie nodded. "I didn't know until I had to deliver a speech during my mother's coronation. The moment it I stepped on the stage was the moment I wished my cloak could make me invisible. I nearly passed out actually." She chuckled at that embarrassing moment. "If Will hadn't been backstage to urge me on, I would've probably ran off into the woods and try to hide there for a month."

"He means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, if it wasn't for him, I would be one of those spoiled, snobby rich kids who never worked a sweat in their entire life. Basically I won't be a very good queen. Plus I would've never discovered this heavenly drink." She held up her mug of coffee, which Baron Damien had ordered to always be served to Maddie whenever she was in castle Gorlan since he found out how addicted she was to the beverage.

"That it definitely is." He smiled warmly.

* * *

The days after arresting the Masters of Death, Maddie noticed that words of her feats in the short battle had gone out around the immediate vicinity around castle Gorlan. It had been so exaggerated and blown up that people would swear she shot down forty people hanging upside down from a tree three hundred metres (1000 feet) away while blindfolded. It was amazing how much people can stray from the truth just to make an interesting story.

One of the good things that came from those exaggerations was that many people tend to show respect and deference to Maddie whenever she rode past on Bumper. Many even bowed.

 _They're doing it because I'm here._ Bumper said to Maddie.

"Sure, Bumper." Maddie patted the piebald horse. She still didn't know whether other Rangers talk to their horses, though she highly suspected that Will often conversed with Tug while she wasn't listening.

Nothing major had happen since the Masters of Death for several weeks. Most of the work since then had just been catching thieving teenage delinquents and sometimes hunting pests that's been eating the crops. Maddie had gotten bored of those quickly and was often wishing for something really interesting or thrilling to happen.

If only she had known the future, she would've been careful for what she wished for.

* * *

 **Ooooooooooh, guess what's going to happen in the next chapter guys. I planned it be quite interesting**

 **Hint: I brought back someone or something from the first Ranger's Apprentice book.**


	7. Chapter 7: Beadt of Fear

**So sorry for not updating for a longtime. My broken arm prevented me from using keys like ",!,(,),? etc... So I needed to wait for someone to hold shift while I type or try searching for them on the internet, which takes quite long.**

* * *

Chapter 7

One day, while having breakfast in her cabin, she heard a knock on the cabin door. She sighed, putting down her mug of coffee that she was sipping and went to open the door. Before she got to the door she took her cloak from the hanging peg and pulled out her saxe knife. Bumper hadn't given a warning, so it was likely that whoever knocked was no threat. But it never hurt to be careful. Maddie threw the door open with her left hand, the suddenness of it was meant to throw off anyone lurking out of sight.

The first thing that she noticed was that there was a woman maybe around the age of her mom, standing in front of her. She was quite lean, and had obvious signs that she had worked very hard in her life but she didn't look underfed either. She wore a simple plain dress .The woman jumped back at the sight of the knife-wielding Ranger. "I'm sorry, I must have got the wrong place." She apologised. Maddie leaned a bit to the right and saw a horse munching on a wildflower.

"Wrong place?"

"Well," the woman said. "You see, I was looking for the Ranger. Would you know where he lives?"

"You're looking at her. I'm Ranger Maddie of Gorlan fief." Maddie leaned against the doorframe. She couldn't really blame the woman for not knowing, Maddie had only just earned her silver oakleaf two months ago and there had never been a female Ranger before her.

"You're… a Ranger?" The woman was obviously surprised. "But you're a girl."

"Oh, really? I've never noticed." Maddie feigned surprise.

The woman, realising that this Ranger was like any other Rangers, only female, apologised profusely. Maddie stopped her from her continuous lines of 'sorry' and 'please forgive me'. "So why did you come here?" Maddie asked, after the woman had stopped. She saw the woman took a deep breath, a sign that it was going to be a long, dragged out story. "Spare me the long version, I don't want to be kept here until I'm ninety years old."

The woman thought for a sometime, thinking about how she could make it short. Then she finally said, "My husband was hunting deer in the forest, you see. He had permission from the Baron to hunt the bigger animals, of course. When he was chasing a doe that he'd wounded, something big charged out from behind him and hit him so hard it broke three of his ribs. Fortunately, he managed to run away with his injury." Maddie listened patiently to the 'shortened story', which was still pretty long.

"So he wanted me to investigate this creature?" Maddie asked and the woman nodded _. It might be a bear or some large creatures similar to one_. Maddie thought. If that was the case, then the bear might need to be hunted lest it harms any more people.

"I can bring you to our farm if you want, my husband would know where he encountered the beast." The woman offered. Maddie declined. Maddie had a pretty good grasp of Gorlan's geography and was confident she could reach the farm by itself. The women then gave Maddie the direction to the farm. "Leave through the high street, go straight for ten kilometres or so, then turn left when you see a gnarled tree that's bigger than all the others. Keep going straight again for five kilometres and when you see a small river, follow it downstream for another five kilometres or so until you reach the crest of the first hill you see, our farm can be seen there. His name is Rake Shovel by the way." The woman, knowing she had done everything she needed to, mounted her pack mule and rode back to her farm. When the woman disappeared out of the tree line, Maddie bursted out laughing like crazy. A farmer named Rake Shovel!

After finishing her interrupted breakfast, Maddie was packing lightly to travel to the woman's farm when she remembered one of the term of conditions that she had agreed with her mom before being assigned her own fief. Whenever she's planning to journey more than ten kilometres (6.2 miles), she has to alert her designated bodyguard and bring him with her. _Guess I have to bring Tim with me._ She thought. She didn't mind that Tim would have to accompany her, he was good company for the road and when she track this creature, he would be able to have her back.

Maddie finished packing her things into her saddle bag, grabbed bow, stringed it and slung it over her shoulders. Then she went down to Bumper in the stable and saddle him up. "Come on, boy, we're going. Tim's coming with us. Remember him?"

 _Of course I remember him, dummy._ Bumper replied as Maddie let him walk out of the stable by himself. Maddie mounted him and rode to castle Gorlan.

* * *

Tim was spectating a sparring match between two final-years apprentices from a distance under the shade of a tree. He frowned as he analysed one of the boy's technique. His movements were stiff and his blows easy to predict. His only saving grace was that his defence was practically impenetrable. His opponent was raining blow upon blow, yet he always blocked them in time.

The boy's opponent was a tall, fair-skinned boy with bleach blond hair. The boy's steps were lithe and sure-footed, like a predator and his attacks were certainly so. Each blow of his seemed like it could've came from a wild bear, and the sound of each blow landing sounded like it was hailing giant ice cubes on a wooden surface. Just by watching the fight for half a minute or so, Tim could judge that the tall boy would win. It was continuing defence versus offense, no longer how good the defence is, it's never infallible.

"Who's winning?" A feminine voice asked from above Tim. Wait, above? He looked up just in time for Maddie to land in front of him from where she was previously perched on one of the branch of the tree he was under, scaring him half out of his wits.

"Ahhh!" He screamed, taking a step back and tripping over a rock sticking out of the ground. Tim clumsily tried to recover but still landed hard on his butt.

"Surprised to see me?" Maddie asked, grinning. She went over to Tim and offered him a hand.

"Surprised!" He exclaimed in indignation. "You nearly gave me a heart-attack! That was uncalled for."

"Well… you were wide open." She said innocently, twiddling her thumbs. Tim got up by himself, rubbing his probably bruised bum.

"At least what you've come to me for?" Tim grimaced as he felt that bruise, it wasn't going anywhere soon.

"I'm going to this farm to hunt down this wild animal that injured a man. The problem is, it's quite far away so…" Maddie started.

"You have to bring me to accompany you, right?" Tim had read the terms that Maddie had to follow and knew where she was getting at.

"Yep." Maddie smiled. "You only need to pack lightly. It won't be a very dangerous or long trip." Tim made his way to castle Gorlan to get his stuffs, still rubbing his buttocks.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Tim emerged from castle Gorlan, wearing half armour, armed with his sword and shield, a small pack of supplies in his saddlebag and also leading a sturdy white battlehorse. Maddie waited for him on Bumper just outside the castle walls. Seeing her, he walked his battlehorse over the Ranger. She rose an eyebrow at his battlehorse.

"Is it really necessary to bring him? I mean, we're going to a farm, not a battlefield."

"Of course it is. I wouldn't trust any other horse except for Sprinter." He patted the battlehorse affectionately on the neck. Maddi nodded, accepting his reasoning. The relationship between him and his horse was probably similar to the relationship between a Ranger and his horse.

 _Or her._ Bumper neighed.

"Wait, how did you?" Maddie was about to ask how Bumper knew what she was thinking if she never voiced it vocally but she realised that Tim was right next to her so she stopped herself from going any further. Best to not creep out one of her only friends in the fief.

"I guess we it's time for us to go now." Maddie suggested. Tim agreed. He mounted his horse and they head out.

"Are we there yet?" Tim asked, perhaps for the millionth time that hour.

"No."

"Are we there now?"

"No."

"What about now?"

"No." Maddie felt annoyance building up within her. _This must be what Will felt like when I was his apprentice._ She thought. Maddie made a mental note to apologise Will to the five years of torture that he went through trying to make a Ranger out of her.

"How about we tell stories about ourselves to pass the time." Tim suggested. Maddie enthusiastically agreed. Anything for Tim to stop asking whether they were there or not.

Tim started talking about his time at Battleschool as an apprentice. Maddie was listening intently because it sounded pretty interesting. On Tim's first week at Battleschool, the drill instructor made his class run ten kilometres through a forest, a river and a swamp. The instructor had made Tim lead the way for the class after showing him a map of the track. The problem was, Tim didn't know how the scaling distance on the map worked and was too shy to ask. So he led his class through a fifty kilometres run where they got lost and separated multiple times, only to arrive at castle Gorlan at midnight, dirty, hungry and miserable. To make things worse, they were sent to bed straight away without being given food and had to do the run again in the next morning. But at least they weren't expelled.

"I bet your class never trusted you to lead them on runs again." Maddie found herself laughing to the story.

"Actually, they never trusted me with anything involving distances ever again." Tim also laughed.

Soon they found themselves trading humorous stories about their time as apprentices. Maddie talked about how Will made her sleep in a dark, wet cave when she changed his favourite song 'Greybeard Halt' into 'Greybeard Will', even going as far as adding several more lines to the song. Tim told her about how he nearly fell asleep during his graduation ceremony when a senior knight delivered a speech as entertaining as watching paint dry. As they talked, Maddie found herself opening up to the young knight more.

By early afternoon, they crested the first hill they saw and true to the directions given to Maddie, there laid a large farm some two hundred metres away. Approaching the farm, Maddie noted that it had four cows, a herd of sheep, dozens of chickens, pigs, a stable and several well-tended fields. Evidently, the farm was a very wealthy one. Its surrounding fences were well built and recently painted. The farmhouse was two story- a rarity for farmhouses- and made of sturdy stones. From their position, Maddie could spot several people working on the fields.

When they got close to the farmstead, a person walked towards them. One was a man nearing his fifties but moved with the dexterity of people half his age even though his torso was wrapped in bandages. He must be the injured husband of the woman who requested her help.

As they come closer, the man said "Hullo there, Ranger. Greetings there kind Sir." His tone was friendly as he welcomed Maddie and Tim.

Maddie dismounted, Tim followed her lead and did the same. She faced the man and asked "You're Rake Shovel, correct?" Tim looked like he was about to burst out laughing until Maddie elbowed him lightly in the stomach. Tim's facial expression seemed to say. _A farmer named Rake Shovel! Are you kidding me?_

"The only one with that ridiculous name. And you're the Ranger, I presume by your cloak." The man replied. The man seems to know that Maddie would be a female, seems like his wife had told him about her.

"Ranger Maddie of Gorlan fief, at your service. This is my friend, Tim, one of the knights in castle Gorlan." She gestured at her friend. "Your wife told me you were injured by a beast while hunting."

"Aye, broke three of my ribs with one stroke, it did." As the farmer said, he rubbed his injury gingerly.

"Can you describe it for me?" Rake's eyes misted over for a second when Maddie asked.

"It's… it's like no creature I've ever hunted," The man's voice came out shaky, as if he's gone through something very traumatising. "It looks much like a bear, but it moves like an ape. I shot it when I was running away, but my arrow just bounced right off like it was nothing. The most terrifying thing about it is that while running away, I made eye contact with the beast and my body was nearly paralysed. It took all my effort to take one step to run. Those eyes of the creature, it shows you all of your nightmares, all of your biggest fears. I was so lucky to have gotten away."

Tim stood there silently listening to Rake. How could a creature stop you with a stare like that? And the fact that the creature was unharmed by a shot from a bow makes it sound neigh invulnerable. Tim looked at Maddie, hoping to see if she showed some signs of recognition of this creature, and saw that she had a thoughtful look on her face, as if the description of the beast was familiar.

"What do you think this animal might be?" Tim asked her.

"I've no idea, though the description of it is a tad bit familiar, I think I've heard it in a story or something like that." She replied. She turned to Rake. "Can you lead us to where you were attacked?" He shook his head.

"The way there is a bit treacherous, my injury won't allow me to go there. But my son can lead you there, sometimes he hunts with me there." He called over for one of the people working on the field to come over. That person turned out to be a boy around fourteen years old, with some features similar to Rake. He was lean with a mop of haphazard black hair, his arms had fine muscle due to working on the fields year round.

"This is my son, Plough." Maddie elbowed Tim again to keep him from laughing out loud. The boy looked at the strangers and turned to his father for some explanation. "Son, this is Sir Tim and the Ranger." Rake gestured at Maddie. Plough look suspiciously at her.

"You're not a Ranger. Girls aren't Ranger." The boy regretted what he said instantly, as his father immediately whacked the boy on the head for his rudeness and forced him to apologise to Maddie.

"That's what you said to me when I rescued you." Maddie whispered softly to Tim. He blushed when he thought about how ungrateful he had been then, calling his saviour a fake. Rake then told his son to lead the two of them to where the attack happened. Plough ran to the stable and led back a saddled bay horse after a couple of minutes.

"Follow me." He said to them as the horse trotted to where the two of them were. Then he accelerate his horse to a run and rode to the east. Maddie and Tim directed their horse to follow him.

After nearly ten minutes of riding, they arrived at the edge of a thick forest, when they looked the east of the forest, the saw the site of a destroyed castle, one that must have been magnificent before being reduced to rubble. They knew what the destroyed castle was, of course, the former castle of the dead Baron Morgarath- the ruins of Gorlan. A thin trail ran into the forest and Plough followed it.

The trail was far from straight and stable, it often zigzags and curve extravagantly, and it was bumpy and slippery at the same time. Soon they arrived at a small meadow with green lustrous grass and a small stream running through it. This would be the ideal place for thirsty animals to come to.

Plough pointed at the stream and said. "This was where pa saw the doe, he tried to kill it with one shot but missed, so the doe ran to the east and he had to chase after it." Maddie and Tim nodded in acknowledgement. They rode east slowly, crossing the stream after letting the horses have a short drink.

As they follow Plough, Maddie felt a bit worried for some reason, as if something was nagging her at the back of her mind. And then she looked up, through the tree canopy, and saw why. And were heading towards the ruins of Gorlan, from here she could see one of its partially destroyed towers. The ruins seems to be affecting the horses too, Maddie patted Bumper several times when he sniffed the air and let out an anxious neighing, Sprinter- Tim's battlehorse-, however, made a move to turn back but Tim reined him in.

"Weird, he never acted like this before." He said.

They continued to go east until Plough reined in, he dismounted and crouched down to inspect something on the ground. Maddie did the same and saw that he was inspecting a broken arrowhead. "This is pa's arrowhead." He said. "The place is right here."

"Good work, Plough, you can go back to your father now." Maddie dismissed him.

"But I…" He started to object.

"Want to see us hunt the beast, don't you?"

"Yeah, of course!" He replied eagerly. He has heard from people that Rangers practiced magic and would love to see one in action.

"No. Go back to your father, if we don't return the next day, contact the baron and request him to send ten knights here." Maddie said coldly, truth is, she didn't want this boy to get hurt. If this beast can break a full grown man's bones in one hit, and if what Rake said was true, then she wanted Plough to be far away as soon as possible.

"Uh, okay." The boy said, clearly disappointed, he wanted to see sorcery. He mounted his horse and rode back to the farm.

"So, what now?" Tim asked.

"We investigate." Maddie replied. She leaned down as she saw an indentation in the ground. It was a footprint, she realised, and quite the large one too. It seems like the owner of the footprint would be huge, bigger than a bear, probably. This footprint seems very similar, something that Will had taught her about before, something about how she would be the unluckiest person in the world if she were to find these and its owner was close by. He also said something about how the chance of encountering this particular track would be impossible, as it was the footprint of an extinct animal.

"Maddie, look." The call came from Tim, who was staring at the trunk of a tree. She came over to him and saw he was looking at a huge claw mark, maybe sixty centimetres (2 feet) in length and as deep as the length of a thumb. "What do you think did this?"

Then a piercing roar ripped through the forest, upsetting many birds from the perches. Their heads snapped towards the direction of the roar, towards the ruins of Gorlan.

"Well…" Tim was the one who spoke, "What do think that was?" He unsheathed his sword and readied his shield.

"Whatever it is, it's probably what we're looking for." Maddie swallowed the fear that's beginning to creep into her voice. "We won't be taking it head on." She tested her double knife scabbard, took out her sling and loaded a lead shot.

"You've got a plan?"

"Of course I do. What type of Ranger would I be without a plan?"

"I don't know. A very bad one?" Tim guessed. Just as he said it, they heard a rhythmic beating like something landing on dirt coming from the east.

"You hear that, right?" Maddie asked. Fear was evident in her voice now, as much as she tried to hide it.

"Yep." Tim got into a fighting stance, gripping his sword tightly. The sound was getting closer now, it started to sound like…footsteps.

"Okay, Tim, try to distract it, whatever it is. I'll climb a tree and shoot it from there." Maddie made a move towards a tall oak tree.

As she made her move, a dark shape charged from the trees with amazing speed, right into Tim with his shield held up. It ran into him without slowing down, knocking him back into a tree three metres (10 feet) away, winding him. The beast was huge, it stood more than two metres and a half tall, supported by its hind leg and its knuckles. It looked like a cross between an ape and a bear, covered in sticky, matted fur. It had wicked long claws the length of a saxe knife, sharp enough to cut through flesh like cheese.

Now Maddie knew why the description of the animal had sounded so familiar to her. It had been recited to her dozens of times through the recalling of Halt and her mentor Will. The beast that could paralyse you in fear with one look. The beast that took the strength of three knights to be taken down. The species f beast that Baron Arald, Sir Rodney, Halt and Will had supposedly killed the last of.

Though they apparently did not.

For standing in front of Maddie, ready to strike her down, was the fearsome Kalkara.

* * *

 **Seriously, it was pretty obvious that the Kalkara was going to come back. The only other character that in book 1 that I considered was Baron Morgarath himself. But it would be pretty crazy if Morgarath had just came back to life and it wouldn't be the style of RA so I switched it to the Kalkaras instead.**


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